October 14th - Humpback whales "Slide" and friend

With flat calm seas and a bright sun, Cascadia headed out at 11am into perfect whale watching conditions. It didn’t take too long until reports surfaced of not one, but two humpbacks in the Strait of Georgia!

Humpback whales “Slide” (KEX0025) and friend were mid Strait and our boat got to spend lots of time watching them interact and spend a lazy afternoon in the sun. Both whales were milling and going down for slow, lazy dives. It was a very relaxing afternoon with these two gentle giants!

October has been an amazing month for humpback whale encounters. We’ve seen whales that have been here in previous years, but we are also adding new individuals to our catalogue that haven’t been seen in this area by us before. Exciting times for local humpback whale research! We work closely with an NGO called Keta Coastal Conservation. They have a free online catalogue of humpback whale flukes, so if you ever see a humpback whale in the Salish Sea and want to try and match it up check out their site and send in your sighting!

Marine naturalist Val Watson was able to get some nice photographs during the tour, here are her best:

A VERY shallow fluke!

Two humpback whales in the Strait of Georgia

Could you even paint a better background!?

UBC in the background!

Double the trouble, double the fun

A California sea lion chowing down on some salmon! Buffet lunch in Dodd Narrows